Orson Scott Card Science fiction When did Card start writing science fiction? was eventually purchased by Ben Bova at Analog Science Fiction and Fact and published in the August 1977 issue. What was the name of the story Analog published in August 1977? He wrote the short story "Ender's Game" while working at the BYU press, So, Ender's Game was first published in Analog magazine--when did it become a book? Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead were both awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, Who was the publisher of Ender's Game? I don't know.
Was Ender's Game his first published book?
Was Ender's Game Orson Scott Card's first published book?
He wrote the short story "Ender's Game" while working at the BYU press, and submitted it to several publications. The idea for the later novel of the same title came from the short story about a school where boys can fight in space. It was eventually purchased by Ben Bova at Analog Science Fiction and Fact and published in the August 1977 issue. Meanwhile, he started writing half-hour audioplays on LDS Church history, the New Testament, and other subjects for Living Scriptures in Ogden, Utah; on the basis of that continuing contract, some freelance editing work, and a novel contract for Hot Sleep and A Planet Called Treason, he left Ensign and began supporting his family as a freelancer.  He completed his master's degree in English at the University of Utah in 1981 and began a doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame, but the recession of the early 1980s caused the flow of new book contracts to temporarily dry up. He returned to full-time employment as the book editor for Compute! magazine in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1983. In October of that year, a new contract for the Alvin Maker "trilogy" (now up to six books) allowed him to return to freelancing.  Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead were both awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the only author (as of 2015) to win both of science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years. Card continued the series with Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, "First Meetings in the Enderverse", Shadow of the Giant, A War of Gifts, and Ender in Exile, a book that takes place after Ender's Game and before Speaker for the Dead. Card has also announced his plan to write Shadows Alive, a book that connects the "Shadow" series and "Speaker" series together. Shadows in Flight serves as a bridge towards this final book. He also co-wrote the formic war novels: Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens and The Swarm as prequels to the Ender novels, with two more novels in the pipeline, which will result in two prequel formic war trilogies. These trilogies relay, among other things, the history of Mazer Rackham. Children of the Fleet is the first novel in a new sequel series, called Fleet School. In 2008 Card announced that Ender's Game would be made into a movie, but that he did not have a director lined up (Wolfgang Petersen had previously been scheduled to direct the movie but subsequently moved on to other projects.) It was to be produced by Chartoff Productions, and Card was writing the screenplay himself. The film was made several years later, and released in 2013, with Asa Butterfield in the title role and Gavin Hood directing.  Other works include the alternative histories The Tales of Alvin Maker, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, The Homecoming Saga, and Hidden Empire, a story about a near-future civil war in the United States, based on the Xbox Live Arcade video game Shadow Complex. He collaborated with Star Wars artist Doug Chiang on Robota and with Kathryn H. Kidd on Lovelock.  In 2017, he co-created a TV series Extinct. CANNOTANSWER
Card continued the series with Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, "
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is currently the only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986) back-to-back. A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).

Card's works were influenced by classic literature, popular fantasy, and science fiction; he often uses tropes from genre fiction. His background as a screenwriter has helped Card make his works accessible. Card's early fiction is original but contains graphic violence. His fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing. Card's opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism and in 2013 it prompted a boycott of the film Ender's Game.

Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had twenty-seven short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres in the 1980s. Card continued to write prolifically, and published over 50 novels and over 45 short stories.

Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He is a practicing member of LDS Church and has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps." Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Life

Childhood and education

Orson Scott Card was born on August 24, 1951, in Richland, Washington. He is the son of Peggy Jane (née Park) and Willard Richards Card, and is the third of six children and the older brother of composer and arranger Arlen Card. Card's family has Mormon pioneer heritage. His direct ancestors include Brigham Young, Charles Ora Card, Zina P. Young Card, Zina Young Card Brown and Hugh B. Brown.

When Card was one month old, his family moved to San Mateo, California, so Willard Card could begin a sign-painting business. When he was three years old, the family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, so his father could finish his bachelor's degree. The family moved to Santa Clara, California, when Card was six; they stayed there for seven years while his father completed his master's degree and worked as a professor at San Jose State College. In school, Card took classes for gifted students but he was more interested in studying music—he played clarinet and French horn. He read widely, including historical fiction, nonfiction, and literary classics. At age ten, he wrote his first story, which was about an intelligent child who is assaulted by bullies and sustains brain damage. Ender's confrontation with Stilson in Ender's Game is based on this story.
 
In 1964, Card and his family moved to Mesa, Arizona, where he participated in mock debates in junior high school. In 1967, the family moved to Orem, Utah, where his father worked at Brigham Young University (BYU). Card attended BYU's laboratory school, where he took both high school and early college-level classes before graduating in one year. When beginning his college studies he intended to major in anthropology, but after becoming increasingly more interested in theater, he began script-writing, writing ten original plays and rewriting other students' plays. Most of his plays were based on Mormon history and scriptures; one was science fiction. By watching the body language of an audience, he could tell when an audience was interested in his scripts. During his studies as a theater major, he began doctoring scripts, adapting fiction for reader's theater production, and writing one-act and full-length plays, several of which were produced by faculty directors at BYU. Charles W. Whitman, Card's play-writing professor, encouraged his students to write plays with LDS themes. Card studied poetry with Clinton F. Larson at BYU. He also wrote short stories, which were later published together in The Worthing Saga.

Before graduating, Card served as a missionary for the LDS Church in Brazil starting in 1971. During his mission, he wrote a play called Stone Tables. He returned from his mission in 1973 and graduated from BYU in 1975, receiving a bachelor's degree with distinction in theater. After graduation, he started the Utah Valley Repertory Theatre Company, which for two summers produced plays at "the Castle", a Depression-era outdoor amphitheater. After going into debt with the community theatre's expenses,Card took part-time employment as a proofreader at BYU Press, moving on to full-time employment as a copy editor. In 1981, Card completed his master's degree in English at the University of Utah where he studied with François Camoin and Norman Council. He began a doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame but dropped out to pursue his more lucrative writing projects.

Personal life
In 1977, Card married Kristine Allen, who is the daughter of Mormon historian James B. Allen. The two met when Kristine was in the chorus of a roadshow Card directed before his mission. They courted after Card's mission, and Card was impressed with her intellectual rigor.

After their marriage they had five children; their son Charles had cerebral palsy and died aged 17; their daughter Erin died the day she was born. Card's short story, Lost Boys, is highly autobiographical, but contains the death of a fictional child. One of Card's workshop readers, Karen Fowler, said that Card had pretended to experience the grief of a parent who has lost a child. In response, Card realized that the story expressed his grief and difficulty in accepting Charles's disability. Card stated that he rarely discusses Charles and Erin because his grief has not faded over time.

Card and his wife live in Greensboro, North Carolina; their daughter Emily, along with two other writers, adapted Card's short stories Clap Hands and Sing, Lifeloop, and A Sepulchre of Songs for the stage in Posing as People. Card suffered a mild stroke on January 1, 2011, and made a full recovery.

Works

Early work
In 1976 Card became an assistant editor at the LDS Church's magazine Ensign and moved to Salt Lake City. While working at Ensign, Card published his first piece of fiction, a short story called Gert Fram, which appeared in the July 1977 issue of Ensign under the pseudonym Byron Walley. Between 1978 and 1988, Card wrote over 300 half-hour audioplays on LDS Church history, the New Testament, and other subjects for Living Scriptures in Ogden, Utah.

Card started writing science fiction short stories because he felt he could sell short stories in that genre more easily than others. His first short story The Tinker was initially rejected by Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Ben Bova, the editor of Analog, rejected a rewrite of the story but asked Card to submit a science fiction piece. In response, Card wrote the short story Ender's Game, which Ben Bova published in the August 1977 issue of Analog. Card left The Ensign in 1977 and began his career as a freelance writer in 1978. Ben Bova continued to work with Card to publish his stories and his wife Barbara Bova became Card's literary agent, a development that drew criticism of a possible conflict of interest. Nine of Card's science fiction stories, including Malpractice, Kingsmeat, and Happy Head, were published in 1978.

Card modeled Mikal's Songbird on Ender's Game, both of which include a child with special talents who goes through emotional turmoil when adults seek to exploit his ability. Mikal's Songbird was a Nebula Award finalist in 1978 and a Hugo finalist in 1979—both in the "novelette" category. Card won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978 for his stories published that year; the award helped Card's stories sell internationally. Unaccompanied Sonata was published in 1979 issue of Omni and was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards for a short story. Eighteen Card stories were published in 1979.

Card's first published book, "Listen, Mom and Dad...": Young Adults Look Back on Their Upbringing (1977) is about child-rearing. He received advances for the manuscripts of Hot Sleep and A Planet Called Treason, which were published in 1979. Card later called his first two novels "amateurish" and rewrote both of them later. A publisher offered to buy a novelization of Mikal's Songbird, which Card accepted; the finished novel is titled Songmaster (1980). Card edited fantasy anthologies Dragons of Light (1980) and Dragons of Darkness (1981), and collected his own short stories in Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories (1981). In the early 1980s, Card focused on writing longer works, only publishing ten short stories between 1980 and 1985. He published a few non-fiction works that were aimed at an LDS audience; these include a satirical dictionary called Saintspeak, which resulted in him being temporarily banned from publishing in church magazines. Card wrote the fantasy-epic Hart's Hope (1983) and a historical novel, A Woman of Destiny (1984), which was later republished as Saints and won the 1985 award from the Association for Mormon Letters for best novel. He rewrote the narrative of Hot Sleep and published it as The Worthing Chronicle (1983), which replaced Hot Sleep and the short-story collection set in the same universe, Capitol (1979). The recession of the early 1980s made it difficult to get contracts for new books so Card returned to full-time employment as the book editor of Compute! magazine that was based in Greensboro, North Carolina, for nine months in 1983. In October of that year, Tom Doherty offered a contract for Card's proposed Alvin Maker series, which allowed him to return to creative writing full-time.

Late 1980's: Ender's Game and short stories

Card's 1977 novella Ender's Game is about a young boy who undergoes military training for space war. Ender believes he is controlling simulated spaceships but is actually controlling real spaceships. Card expanded the story into a novel with the same title and told the backstory of the adult Ender in Speaker for the Dead. In contrast to the fast-paced Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead is about honesty and maturity. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were both awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the first author to win both of science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years. According to Card, some members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) resented his receiving of the Nebula award while editing the Nebula Awards Report. Subsequently, Card left the SFWA. Card attended many science fiction conventions in the late 1980s. He held several "Secular Humanist Revival Meetings" at the conventions, satirizing Evangelical revival meetings.

Card continued to write short stories and columns and published two short story collections: Cardography (1987) and The Folk of the Fringe (1989). The novella Eye for Eye was republished with another novella by Tor and won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1988. Between 1987 and 1989, Card edited and published a short science fiction review magazine called Short Form. He also wrote Characters & Viewpoint (1988) and How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1990). Card also offered advice about writing in an interview in Leading Edge #23 in 1991. He wrote the script for an updated Hill Cumorah Pageant in 1988.

Inspired by Spenser's Faerie Queene, Card composed the long poem Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow, which uses colloquial language and diction common to Joseph Smith's time. The poem, along with the novelette "Hatrack River," became the basis for Seventh Son (1987), the first book in The Tales of Alvin Maker series, a fantasy retelling of the Joseph Smith story. In the alternate history novel, Alvin Maker, the seventh son of a seventh son, is born with unusual magical abilities that make him a "Maker." Alvin has many similarities to Joseph Smith. Following Seventh Son, he wrote Red Prophet, and Prentice Alvin, which focus on settlers' interactions with indigenous peoples and slaves, respectively. The series has sustainable environmental ethics as a main theme, addressing ways humans affect the environment in the Americas. Alvin Maker's life has many parallels with Joseph Smith's. Seventh Son won the 1988 Mythopoeic Fantasy award, and the two following books were nominees. The awards are given to books that exemplify "the spirit of The Inklings". Critics praised Seventh Son for creating an American mythology from American experience and belief. According to literary critic Eugene England, the series brings up questions about what, exactly, the mission of a religious prophet is. The series also questions the difference between a prophet and magician, religion and magic.

In the 1980s, Card also wrote Wyrms (1987), a novel about colonizing a planet, and revised A Planet Called Treason, which was published as Treason. He also novelized James Cameron's film The Abyss.

Works from the 1990s 
Card wrote prolifically in the 1990s, including many books and the short story omnibus Maps in a Mirror (1990). Card continued the Ender's Game series with Xenocide (1991) and Children of the Mind (1996), which focus on Jane, an artificial intelligence that develops self-awareness. These books were considered inferior to their predecessors and were, according to science fiction critic Gary Westfahl, "overly prolonged".

While Children of the Mind concluded the initial Ender's Game series, Card started another series of books and continued writing in The Tales of Alvin Maker series. The Homecoming Saga is a science-fiction adaptation of The Book of Mormon. The series' volumes; The Memory of Earth, The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall, and Earthborn were published between 1992 and 1995. Alvin Journeyman (1995), the fourth book in The Tales of Alvin Maker series, won a Locus Award and Heartfire (1998) was a nominee for the same award.

Card wrote several stand-alone novels in the 1990s. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996) examines time travel and Christopher Columbus. Card collaborated with Star Wars artist Doug Chiang on Robota and with Kathryn H. Kidd on Lovelock. Lost Boys (1992) is a horror story with a semi-autobiographical background. Treasure Box (1996) and Homebody (1998) represent Card's foray in horror. Enchantment (1999) is a fantasy novel based on the Russian version of Sleeping Beauty. It deals with a couple who learn to love each other after they marry. Card stated: "I put all my love for my wife into [Enchantment]."

Shadow series and later writings 
In 1999, Card started a spin-off "shadow" series in the Ender's Game universe that is told from the point of view of other characters. These novels are Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets,  Shadow of the Giant and Shadows in Flight, the latter serving as a bridge to a planned final book The Last Shadow, which will also be a sequel to Children of the Mind. Westfahl praised the Shadow series, stating they were "executed with panache and skill". Card wrote other spin-offs: a series of shorter stories, First Meetings in the Enderverse, and novels A War of Gifts, and Ender in Exile. Aaron Johnston and Card conceptualized the stories that make up the prequel to Ender's Game, realizing many of them would work best in novel format but first publishing the comics through Marvel. The Burning Earth and Silent Strike comic series were published in 2011 and 2012. Card and Johnston co-wrote the novels in the series between 2012 and 2019; these are Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens, The Swarm, and The Hive. Children of the Fleet is the first novel in a new sequel series, called Fleet School.

While Card was writing books in the Shadow series, he also wrote a series of books focused on women in the Bible, novellas, and other novels. Card's The Women of Genesis series includes Sarah (2000), Rebekah (2002), and Rachel and Leah (2004). Card wrote three novellas in the 2000s; Space Boy (2007) is a children's story, Hamlet's Father (2008) is a retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Stonefather (2008) is the first story set in the Mithermages universe. The Crystal City (2003), is the sixth book in The Alvin Maker series.

Card wrote two young-adult fantasy trilogies in the 2010s. Mithermages is about a teenager growing up on a magical estate in rural Virginia; it includes The Lost Gate (2011), The Gate Thief (2013), and Gatefather (2015). The Pathfinder trilogy consists of Pathfinder (2010), Ruins (2012), and Visitors (2014), and follows a young man who can change the past. Card has also written several urban fantasies, including Magic Street (2005) and Lost and Found (2019), both of which are about teenagers with special powers.

Card wrote the Christmas novel Zanna's Gift (2004), which was originally published under a pseudonym. A Town Divided by Christmas and a "Hallmark Christmas movie in prose" were published in 2018. Invasive Procedures (2007), a medical thriller co-written with Aaron Johnston, is based on a screenplay Johnston wrote, which is based on Card's novel Malpractice.

Video games, comic books and television

In the 1990s, Card contributed dialogue to the point-and-click adventure video games  The Secret of Monkey Island, The Dig, and NeoHunter,  an early first-person shooter. His collaboration on videogame scripts continued in the 2000s, when he worked with Cameron Dayton on Advent Rising and outlined the story for Shadow Complex, a prequel to the events in his novels Empire and Hidden Empire. The novels and game are about a near-future civil war in the United States that occurs after civilians resist a left-wing coup in the White House.

Card has written scripts for the two-volume comic-book series Ultimate Iron Man. He collaborated with his daughters Emily and Zina on the graphic novel Laddertop, and with Aaron Johnston to write a series of six Dragon Age comics. In 2017, Card wrote, produced, and co-created a television series called Extinct  for BYU TV that ran for one season before it was canceled.

Adaptations

Many of Card's works have been adapted into comic books. Dabel Brothers Productions published comic-book adaptations of Red Prophet and Wyrms in 2006. Aaron Johnston wrote comic-book versions of Ender in Exile and Speaker for the Dead. Marvel published two Ender's Game miniseries, which were collected in the graphic novel version of Ender's Game; Christ Yost wrote the script and Pasqual Ferry was the artist. Two sets of comic miniseries were adapted by Mike Carey for Ender's Shadow and the comics collected in Ender's Shadow Ultimate Collection. A series of one-shots, some of which are based on Card's Enderverse short stories, were collected in Ender's Game: War of Gifts.

Since Ender's Game was published in 1985, Card was reluctant to license film rights and artistic control for the novel. He had two opportunities to sell the rights of Ender's Game to Hollywood studios, but refused when creative differences became an issue. Card announced in February 2009 that he had completed a script for Odd Lot Entertainment, and that they had begun assembling a production team. On April 28, 2011, it was announced that Summit Entertainment had picked up the film's distribution and Digital Domain joined Odd Lot Entertainment in a co-production role. Card wrote many versions of the script for the movie, but ultimately director Gavin Hood wrote the screenplay. Card was a co-producer of the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, the critical consensus states: "If it isn't quite as thought-provoking as the book, Ender's Game still manages to offer a commendable number of well-acted, solidly written sci-fi thrills."

Newspaper columns
Since 2001, Card's commentary includes the political columns "War Watch", "World Watch",  and "Uncle Orson Reviews Everything", which were published in the Greensboro Rhinoceros Times until 2019. "Uncle Orson Reviews Everything" features personal reviews of films and commentary on other topics. The column also appears on Card's website, which is titled "Hatrack River". From 2008 to 2015, Card wrote a column of Latter-day Saint devotional and cultural commentary for the Nauvoo Times, which was published through Hatrack River.

Influences and style

Influences
During his childhood, Card read widely. He read children's classics and popular novels. His favorite book was Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper and he read his family's World Book Encyclopedia in its entirety. He read science fiction stories in anthologies and science fiction novels. He especially credits Tunesmith by Lloyd Biggle Jr. as having a large effect on his life.  Card often refers to works by Robert A. Heinlein and J. R. R. Tolkien as sources of inspiration. Card credits C. S. Lewis's apologetic fiction in the Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters as influences that shaped his life and career. In 2014, Card stated that Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury were conscious influences on his writing, along with Early Modern English from the King James Version of the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare. As a college student, Card read classic literature, science fiction, and fantasy. Spenser's poetry inspired the original Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow. Influences from Portuguese and Brazilian Catholicism, which Card learned about during his LDS mission to Brazil, are evident in his Shadow and Speaker novels. Card stated his writing improved after teaching writing workshops with Jay Wentworth and from Algis Budrys's workshops at Writers of the Future.

Card's membership of the LDS Church has been an important influence on his writing, though he initially tried to keep his religious beliefs separate from his fiction. Susanne Reid, a science fiction scholar, stated Card's religious background is evident in his frequent messiah protagonists and the "moral seriousness" in his works. Card's science-fiction books do not reference the LDS religion directly but "offer careful readers insights that are compelling and moving in their religious intensity". Non-LDS readers of A Planet Called Treason did not remark on religious themes, however, LDS reviewer Sandy Straubhaar disliked the novel's explicit violence and sex, and stated LDS connections were "gratuitous". Dick Butler criticized A Planet Called Treason for its lack of Gospel themes and ideas, and two other LDS reviewers defended Card. According to Michael Collings, a critic who acknowledges his "unabashed appreciation" of Card, knowledge of Mormon theology is vital to completely understanding Card's works, stating the life stages of the "piggies" in Speaker for the Dead correspond to phases of life in the LDS's plan of salvation.In an article in Sunstone, Christopher C. Smith also noticed this parallel, noting that the "piggies" procreate "more or less eternally" in the last stage of their development. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead deal with religious themes common in LDS theology but without many surface references to the religion. The Alvin Maker series does not try to explain Mormon history but uses it to examine his characters' relationships with God.  Card stated that his church membership influences his communitarian values, specifically, making personal sacrifices for the good of a community. Individuals making sacrifices for their community is a theme in his work.

Card's Homecoming Saga is a dramatization of Book of Mormon.Eugene England called the first five novels "good literature". Card received criticism from members of the LDS church for "plagiarizing" the Book of Mormon and using it irreverently. He defended his choices and said speculative fiction is the genre best suited to exploring theological and moral issues. Also in the Homecoming Saga, Card imagines backstories and explanations for "anomalies" in the Book of Mormon, making the fictional work function as a work of Mormon apologetics. While women are not prominent in the Book of Mormon, Card makes them prominent in his retelling. One non-LDS critic described the saga as "readable" but lacking in new ideas. Unaware of its relation to the Book of Mormon, another critic said it is similar to the Bible.

Style
Because Card began his writing career in screenplays, his early work is considered accessible and fast-paced with good characters, but also stylistically unremarkable. According to biographer Richard Bleiler, a number of critics described his tone as emotionless or conversely, as nonjudgmental, leaving readers to come to their own conclusions about how to feel about a story. Though Card was initially classified as a hard science fiction writer for publishing in Analog, his science fiction focuses more on his characters than on the details of future technology. One critic said Card is poor at characterization, stating the characters Peter and Valentine in Ender's Game are "totally unbelievable". While noticing that some of Card's early stories were formulaic, Westfahl praised many of Card's early stories as showing "conspicuous originality". The graphic violence in his early fiction was controversial; frequent appearances of naked men and boys raised "questions about homoerotic imagery" according to Westfahl. Collings stated that the early stories are "essential steps in the development of Card's fiction". Card uses a technique common in pulp fiction when he refers to characters by a quirk of their appearance or personality. Card's fantasy stories also use tropes that are common to fantasy.

Card cites the Book of Mormon as an important influence on his writing; his habit of beginning sentences with conjunctions comes from the book. Literary devices in Hot Sleep parallel those of the Book of Mormon. Collings said Hot Sleep mimicry of Book of Mormon language makes it an "inherently" Mormon novel. Card combined several Worthing stories and revised Hot Sleep to create The Worthing Chronicle, which does not mirror the language of the Book of Mormon as much as Hot Sleep does.

Themes

Child-genius savior
One theme in Card's works is that of a precocious child who is isolated from others but is uniquely positioned to help or save their community. These characters with exceptional abilities achieve their destiny "through discipline and suffering". Often, his gifted protagonists are introspective children. Card's work features children and adults working together, which is unusual. His characters feel "real" and must grow and take on responsibilities, and often sacrifice themselves to improve their own societies. This sacrifice is a difficult choice in which none of the options are obviously good.  These protagonists have unusual abilities that are both a blessing and a curse. The protagonists, who are isolated from family and friends, relate better to adults than to other young people; when they grow up, they often mentor other precocious youths. Alvin Maker follows this pattern; his magical abilities are very unusual and he uses them to redeem his people.

According to Collings, Card's protagonists are "lonely and manipulative Messiah-figures" who make sacrifices that can be interpreted as a declaration of principles. Family and community problems arise when individuals are not fully accepted or when communities do not work with others in larger units. Often one group tries to kill or enslave another group but their conflict is alleviated when they try to understand each other. Protagonists make choices that save a person or a group of people. In The Porcelain Salamander, a girl is saved by a magical salamander; this action restores her ability to move but she takes on some attributes of the salamander. In Kingsmeat the Shepherd painlessly excises meat from humans to save them from being completely eaten by their alien overlords. The violence of removing parts of people is like the violence of repentance. Collings states part of this story "could serve as an epigram of all Card's fictions; trapped within a circle of opposing forces, one focal character must decide whether or not to become, like Ender Wiggin, 'something of a savior, or a prophet, or at least a martyr'."

The original short story Ender's Game is reminiscent of Heinlein's young adult novels because it is about a young person with impressive gifts who is guided by a stern mentor whose choices affect all of humanity. The situations and choices in the Ender series invoke a number of philosophical topics, including the rules of war, embodiment psychology, the ethics of anthropology and xenology, and the morality of manipulating children. Though Card described Happy Head (1978) as an embarrassment, it anticipated cyberpunk fiction with an investigator judge who can experience memories with witnesses. Both A Thousand Deaths (1978) and Unaccompanied Sonata feature protagonists who rebel against the dystopias they inhabit.

American politics
In a May 2013 essay called "Unlikely Events", which Card presented as an experiment in fiction-writing, Card described an alternative future in which President Barack Obama ruled as a "Hitler- or Stalin-style dictator" with his own national police force of young unemployed men; Obama and his wife Michelle would have amended the U.S. Constitution to allow presidents to remain in power for life, as in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Nazi Germany. In the essay, first published in The Rhinoceros Times, Card attributed Obama's success to being a "black man who talks like a white man (that's what they mean by calling him "articulate" and a "great speaker")." The essay drew criticism from journalists for its allusions to Obama's race and its reference to "urban gangs". Vice author Dave Schilling featured the article in his "This Week in Racism" roundup several months after its publication.

Empire (2006) is a novel about civil war between progressive and conservative extremists in America. It was a finalist for the Prometheus Award, an award given by the Libertarian Futurist Society. Publishers Weekly stated that "right-wing rhetoric trumps the logic of story and character" in the novel. Another review from Publishers Weekly noted that "Card's conservative bias seeps into" the novel. At SFReviews, Thomas Wagner took further issue with Card's tendency to "smugly pretend[...] to be above it all," or claiming to be moderate while espousing conservative views of news media.  In an interview with Mythaxis Review in April 2021, Card stated that he writes fiction "without conscious agenda."

Homosexuality
In Card's fiction writing, homosexual characters appear in contexts that some critics have interpreted as homophobic. Writing for Salon, Aja Romano lists the "homophobic subtext" of characters in four of Card's books. In Songmaster, a man falls in love with a 15-year-old castrato in a pederastic society. Their sexual union has "creepy overtones" that makes the teenager "unable to have sex again." On the topic of Songmaster, Card wrote that he was not trying to show homosexual sex as beautiful. Romano wrote that the book's "main plot point revolve[d] around punishing homosexual sex." In the Homecoming series, a gay male character, Zdorab, marries and procreates for the good of society. Romano notes that Zdorab does not stop being gay after his marriage, but that procreation is paramount in the book's society.  Eugene England defends Zdorab, arguing that he is a sympathetic character who discovered that his homosexuality was determined by his mother's hormone levels during pregnancy. Therefore, Card acknowledges that homosexuality is not a character trait that can be erased or reversed. While Zdorab marries and has children, he sees his choice to become a father as very deliberate and not "out of some inborn instinct." 

Card's 2008 novella Hamlet's Father re-imagines the backstory of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the novella, Hamlet's friends were sexually abused as children by his pedophilic father and subsequently identify as homosexual adults. The novella prompted public outcry and its publishers were inundated with complaints. Trade journal Publishers Weekly criticized Card's work, stating its main purpose was to attempt to link homosexuality with pedophilia. Card responded that he did not link homosexuality with pedophilia, stating that in his book, Hamlet's father was a pedophile that shows no sexual attraction to adults of either sex.

Views

Politics
Card became a member of the U.S. Democratic Party in 1976 and has on multiple occasions referred to himself as a Moynihan or Blue Dog Democrat, as recently as 2020.  Card supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008 and Newt Gingrich in 2012. In 2016 he followed the "hold your nose, vote Trump" hashtag and voted accordingly.  According to Salon, Card's views are close to neoconservative. Card has described himself as a moral conservative,  Card was a vocal supporter of the U.S.'s War on Terror.   In a 2020 interview with Ben Shapiro, Card stated that he was not a conservative because he has beliefs that do not align with typical conservative platforms, including desiring liberal immigration laws, gun control, and abolishing the death penalty. In 2000, Card said he believed government has a duty to protect citizens from capitalism.

Homosexuality
Card has publicly declared his support of laws against homosexual activity and same-sex marriage. Card's 1990 essay "A Changed Man: The Hypocrites of Homosexuality" was first published in Sunstone and republished in his collection of non-fiction essays, A Storyteller in Zion. In the essay, he argued that laws against homosexual behavior should not be "indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but [used only] when necessary to send a clear message [to] those who flagrantly violate society's regulation".  Card also questioned in a 2004 column the notion that homosexuality was a purely innate or genetic trait, and asserted that a range of environmental factors also contributed to its development, including abuse. In an introduction to a reprint of his essay, Card wrote that since 2003, when the US Supreme Court had ruled those laws unconstitutional, he has "no interest in criminalizing homosexual acts". 

Card has stated there is no need to legalize same-sex marriage and that he opposes efforts to do so. In 2008, he wrote in an opinion piece in the Deseret News that relationships between same-sex couples would always be different from those between opposite-sex couples, and that if a government were to say otherwise, "married people" would "act to destroy" it as their "mortal enemy". In 2012, Card supported North Carolina Amendment 1, a ballot measure to outlaw same-sex marriage in North Carolina, saying the legalization of gay marriage was a slippery slope upon which the political left would make it  "illegal to teach traditional values in the schools". In 2009, Card joined the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that campaigns against same-sex marriage. Card resigned from the board in mid-2013. In July 2013, one week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings in two cases that were widely interpreted as favoring recognition of same-sex marriages, Card published in Entertainment Weekly a statement saying the same-sex marriage issue is moot because of the Supreme Court's decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Card's views have had professional repercussions. In 2013, he was selected as a guest author for DC Comics's new Adventures of Superman comic book series, but controversy over his views on homosexuality led illustrator Chris Sprouse to leave the project. An online petition to drop the story received over 16,000 signatures and DC Comics put Card's story on hold indefinitely. A few months later, an LGBT non-profit organization Geeks OUT proposed a boycott of the movie adaptation of Ender's Game, calling Card's views "anti-gay" and causing the movie studio Lionsgate to publicly distance itself from Card's opinions.

Awards and legacy
Card won the ALA Margaret Edwards Award, which recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contributions to young adult literature", in 2008 for his contribution in writing for teenagers; his work was selected by a panel of YA librarians. Card said he was unsure his work was suitable for the award because it was never marketed as "young adult". In the same year, Card won the Lifetime Achievement Award for Mormon writers at the Whitney Awards.

In 1978, the Harold B. Lee Library acquired the Orson Scott Card papers, which include Card's works, writing notes, and letters. The collection was formally opened in 2007. Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited Card's works as a major influence. In addition, Card inspired Lindsay Ellis's novel Axiom's End.

Card has also won numerous awards for single works: 
 1978 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer from the World Science Fiction Convention, citing the Ender's Game novelette
 1984 Saints: Book of the Year by the Association for Mormon Letters
 1985 Ender's Game: Nebula Award, 1985; Hugo Award, 1986;
 1986 Speaker for the Dead; Nebula Award, 1986, Hugo Award, 1987; Locus Award, 1987; SF Chronicle Readers Poll Award 87
 1987 "Eye for Eye": Hugo Award, 1988; Seiun Award, 1989
 1987 "Hatrack River": Nebula nominee, 1986, Hugo nominee, 1987, World Fantasy Award (WFA) winner - novella, 1987
 1988 Seventh Son: Hugo and WFA nominee, 1988; Mythopoeic Society Award 1988; Locus Award winner, 1988
 1989 Red Prophet: Hugo nominee, 1988; Nebula Nominee, 1989; Locus winner, 1989
 1991 How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (Writer's Digest Books, 90): Hugo Award
 1995 Alvin Journeyman: Locus Award winner, 1996
2002 Shadow of the Hegemon: ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Other activities
Since 1994, Card has served as a judge for Writers of the Future, a science fiction and fantasy story contest for amateur writers. In late 2005, Card launched Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, an online fantasy and science fiction magazine. In 2005, Card accepted a permanent appointment as "distinguished professor" at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Virginia, a small liberal arts college. Card has served on the boards of a number of organizations, including public television station UNC-TV (2013–present) and the National Organization for Marriage (2009–2013).

Card taught a course on novel-writing at Pepperdine University, which was sponsored by Michael Collings. Afterwards, Card designed his own writing courses called "Uncle Orson's Writing Course" and "literary boot camp". Eric James Stone, Jamie Ford, Brian McClellan, Mette Ivie Harrison and John Brown have attended Card's literary boot camp. Luc Reid, founder of the Codex Writers Group is also a literary book camp alumnus. Card has been a Special Guest and/or Literary Guest of Honor and Keynote Speaker at the Life, the Universe, & Everything professional science fiction and fantasy arts symposium, on at least six separate occasions: 1983, 1986, 1987, 1997, 2008, 2014.

See also
 
 Orson Scott Card bibliography
 LDS fiction
 Descendants of Brigham Young

References

Works cited

Further reading
 Card Catalogue: The Science Fiction and Fantasy of Orson Scott Card, Michael R. Collings, Hypatia Press, 1987, 
 The Work of Orson Scott Card: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide, Michael R. Collings and Boden Clarke, 1997
 Storyteller: The Official Guide to the Works of Orson Scott Card, Michael R. Collings, Overlook Connection Press, 2001,

External links

 Official website
 
 
 Orson Scott Card at the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
 Orson Scott Card at the Encyclopedia of Fantasy
 
 Orson Scott Card at the MLCA Database
 Orson Scott Card papers, MSS 1756 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
 Orson Scott Card exhibit, includes several scans of manuscript items from the Orson Scott Card papers at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University

1951 births
20th-century American novelists
20th-century Mormon missionaries
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American novelists
American Latter Day Saint writers
American Mormon missionaries in Brazil
American children's writers
American comics writers
American fantasy writers
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American online publication editors
American science fiction writers
Brigham Young University alumni
Hugo Award-winning writers
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer winners
Latter Day Saints from Arizona
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Living people
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Mormon apologists
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Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species they dub the "buggers". In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, Earth's international military force recruits young children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, to be trained as elite officers. The children learn military strategy and leadership by playing increasingly difficult war games, including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.

The book originated as a short story of the same name, published in the August 1977 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The novel was published on January 15, 1985. Later, by elaborating on characters and plotlines depicted in the novel, Card wrote additional books in the Ender's Game series. Card released an updated version of Ender's Game in 1991, changing some political facts to account for the then-recent dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War). The novel has been translated into 34 languages.

Reception of the book has been mostly positive. It has become suggested reading for many military organizations, including the United States Marine Corps. Ender's Game was recognized as "best novel" by the 1985 Nebula Award and the 1986 Hugo Award in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Its four sequels—Speaker for the Dead (1986), Xenocide (1991), Children of the Mind (1996), and Ender in Exile (2008)—follow Ender's subsequent travels to many different worlds in the galaxy. In addition, the later novella A War of Gifts (2007) and novel Ender's Shadow (1999), plus other novels in the Shadow saga, take place during the same time period as the original.

A film adaptation of the same name, written for the screen and directed by Gavin Hood, and starring Asa Butterfield as Ender, was released in October 2013. Card co-produced the film. The novel has also been adapted into two comic book series.

Synopsis 

In the future, humanity has mastered interplanetary spaceflight and as they explore the galaxy, they encounter an insect-like alien race called the Formics, derogatorily named "buggers". After discovering a Formic base on asteroid Eros, war breaks out between the humans and Formics. The humans achieve a narrow victory, but fearing future threats of a Formic invasion, create the International Fleet (I.F.) and train gifted children to become commanders at their orbiting Battle School.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is born a "Third": a rare exception to Earth's two-child policy, allowed by the government due to the promise shown by his two older siblings. The eldest, Peter, is a highly intelligent sociopath who sadistically bullies Ender, and harms small animals. His sister, Valentine, is more sympathetic towards him. The I.F. remove Ender's monitoring device when he is six years old, seemingly ending his chances of Battle School. He is bullied by a fellow student, Stilson, but Ender turns violent and attacks him. Unknown to Ender, Stilson later dies from his wounds. I.F. Colonel Hyrum Graff visits Ender after hearing about the fight. Ender attests that by showing superiority now, he has prevented future struggle. Graff offers him a place in the Battle School.

Once at Battle School, Graff and the other leaders covertly work to keep Ender isolated from the other cadets. Ender finds solace in playing a simulated adventure game that involves killing a giant. The cadets participate in competitive war simulations in zero gravity, where Ender quickly masters the game with novel tactics and dominates his opponents. To further wear Ender down, he is promoted to command a new army composed of raw recruits, then pitted against multiple armies at once, but Ender's success continues. Ender's jealous ex-commander, Bonzo Madrid, draws him into a fight outside the simulation, and once again seeking to preemptively stop future conflicts, Ender uses excessive force. Like Stilson before him Bonzo dies from his injuries and this fact is hidden from Ender.

Meanwhile on Earth, Peter Wiggin uses a global communication system to post political essays under the pseudonym "Locke", hoping to establish himself as a respected orator and then as a powerful politician. Valentine, despite not trusting Peter, agrees to publish alongside him as the more radical "Demosthenes". Their essays are soon taken seriously by the government and influence Earth's politics. Though Graff is told their true identities, he recommends that it be kept a secret, because their writings are politically useful.

Ender, now ten years old, is promoted to Command School on Eros after a brief respite on Earth. After some preliminary battles in the simulator, he is introduced to Mazer Rackham, a hero from the Formic war who saw key patterns in the Formic behavior. Ender participates in space combat simulations created and controlled by Mazer. As the skirmishes become harder, he is joined by some of his friends from the Battle School as sub-commanders. Despite this, Ender becomes depressed by the battles, his isolation, and by the way Mazer treats him.

For his final test, under observation by I.F.'s commanders, Ender finds his fleet far outnumbered by Formic ships surrounding their homeworld. Hoping to earn himself expulsion from the school for his ruthlessness, he sacrifices his entire fleet to fire a Molecular Disruption Device at the planet. The Device completely destroys the planet and the surrounding bugger fleet. He is shocked to hear the I.F. commanders cheering in celebration. Mazer informs Ender that the "simulations" he has been fighting were real battles, directing human spacecraft against Formic fleets via an ansible's instantaneous communication, and that Ender has won the war. Ender becomes more depressed on learning this, realizing that he has committed genocide.

Ender spends several weeks isolated before recovering, and learns that once news of the Formic homeworld destruction reached Earth, Earth's powers began fighting among themselves. Ender is prevented from returning home as he would be exploited by Peter and other politicians to fulfill their own purposes. Instead, he remains on Eros, which becomes a launch point for colonization of former Formic worlds. Valentine is one of the first colonists to arrive, and Ender decides to join her.

On the new planet, Ender becomes the colony's governor. As he explores the planet, he discovers a structure that matches the simulation of the giant game from Battle School, and inside finds the dormant egg of a Formic queen. The queen telepathically communicates to Ender that before the first Formic war, they had assumed humans were a non-sentient race, for want of collective consciousness, but realized their mistake too late. She has reached out to Ender to draw him here and requests that he take the egg to a new planet for the Formics to colonize and rebuild.

Ender takes the egg and, with information from the queen, writes The Hive Queen under the alias "Speaker for the Dead". Peter, now the leader of Earth and age 77 with a failing heart due to relativistic space travel, recognizes Ender as the author of The Hive Queen. He asks Ender to write a book about him, which Ender titles The Hegemon. The combined works create a new type of funeral, in which the Speaker for the Dead tells the whole and unapologetic story of the deceased, adopted by many on Earth and its colonies. Ender and Valentine leave the colony and travel to many other worlds, looking for a safe place to establish the unborn Hive Queen.

Creation and inspiration 
The original "Ender's Game" is a short story that provides a small snapshot of Ender's experiences in Battle School and Command School; the full-length novel encompasses more of Ender's life before, during, and after the war, and also contains some chapters describing the political exploits of his older siblings back on Earth. In a commentary track for the 20th anniversary audiobook edition of the novel, as well as in the 1991 Author's Definitive Edition, Card stated that Ender's Game was written specifically to establish the character of Ender for his role of the Speaker in Speaker for the Dead, the outline for which he had written before novelizing Ender's Game. In his 1991 introduction to the novel, Card discussed the influence of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series on the novelette and novel. Historian Bruce Catton's work on the American Civil War also influenced Card.

Ender's Game was the first science-fiction novel published entirely online, when it appeared on Delphi a year before print publication.

Critical response 
Ender's Game won the Nebula Award for best novel in 1985, and the Hugo Award for best novel in 1986, considered the two most prestigious awards in science fiction.  Ender's Game was also nominated for a Locus Award in 1986. In 1999, it placed No. 59 on the reader's list of Modern Library 100 Best Novels. It was also honored with a spot on American Library Association's "100 Best Books for Teens".  In 2008, the novel, along with Ender's Shadow, won the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors an author and specific works by that author for lifetime contribution to young adult literature. Ender's Game was included in Damien Broderick's book Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985–2010. It ranked number nine on Locus's top SF novels published before 1990.

The New York Times writer Gerald Jonas asserts that the novel's plot summary resembles a "grade Z, made-for-television, science-fiction rip-off movie", but says that Card develops the elements well despite this "unpromising material". Jonas further praises the development of the character Ender Wiggin: "Alternately likable and insufferable, he is a convincing little Napoleon in short pants."

The novel has received criticism for violence and its justification. Elaine Radford's review, "Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman", posits that Ender Wiggin is an intentional reference by Card to Adolf Hitler and criticizes the violence in the novel, particularly at the hands of the protagonist. Card responded to Radford's criticisms in Fantasy Review, the same publication. Radford's criticisms are echoed in John Kessel's essay "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality", wherein Kessel states: "Ender gets to strike out at his enemies and still remain morally clean. Nothing is his fault." Noah Berlatsky makes similar claims in his analysis of the relationship between colonization and science fiction, where he describes Ender's Game as in part a justification of "Western expansion and genocide".

The U.S. Marine Corps Professional Reading List makes the novel recommended reading at several lower ranks, and again at Officer Candidate/Midshipman.
The book was placed on the reading list by Captain John F. Schmitt, author of FMFM-1 (Fleet Marine Fighting Manual, on maneuver doctrine) for "provid[ing] useful allegories to explain why militaries do what they do in a particularly effective shorthand way".
In introducing the novel for use in leadership training, Marine Corps University's Lejeune program opines that it offers "lessons in training methodology, leadership, and ethics as well. . . . Ender's Game has been a stalwart item on the Marine Corps Reading List since its inception". It is also used as an early fictional example of game-based learning.

Accolades 

The weeks ending June 9, August 11, September 1, September 8, October 27, November 3, November 10, and November 24, 2013, the novel was No. 1 on The New York Times''' Best Sellers List of Paperback Mass-Market Fiction.

 Revisions 
In 1991, Card made several minor changes to reflect the political climates of the time, including the decline of the Soviet Union. In the afterword of Ender in Exile (2008), Card stated that many of the details in chapter 15 of Ender's Game were modified for use in the subsequent novels and short stories.  In order to more closely match the other material, Card has rewritten chapter 15 and plans to offer a revised edition of the book.

 Adaptations 

 Film 

After several years of speculation on the possibility, Summit Entertainment financed and coordinated the development of a film in 2011, serving as its distributor. Gavin Hood directed the film, which lasts 1 hour and 54 minutes. Filming began in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 27, 2012, and was released on November 1, 2013 (USA). A movie preview trailer was released in May 2013 and a second trailer was released later that year.

Card has called Ender's Game "unfilmable", "because everything takes place in Ender's head", and refused to sign a film deal unless he could ensure that the film was "true to the story". Of the film that he eventually agreed to, Card said it was "the best that good people could do with a story they really cared about and believed in", and while warning fans not to expect a completely faithful adaptation, called the film "damn good".

The movie starred Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin and Harrison Ford as Colonel Hyrum Graff. It grossed $125 million worldwide, and received mixed reviews from critics.

 Video game 
In 2008 it was announced an Ender's Game video game was in the works. It was to be known as Ender's Game: Battle Room and was a planned digitally distributed video game for all viable downloadable platforms. It was under development by Chair Entertainment, which also developed the Xbox Live Arcade games Undertow and Shadow Complex. Chair had sold the licensing of Empire to Card, which became a bestselling novel. Little was revealed about the game, save its setting in the Ender universe and that it would have focused on the Battle Room.

In December 2010, it was announced that the video game development had stopped and the project put on indefinite hold.

Orson Scott Card and Amaze Entertainment also came to an agreement regarding a video game adaption of the novel but nothing ever materialized.

 Comics 

Marvel Comics and Orson Scott Card announced on April 19, 2008, that they would be publishing a limited series adaptation of Ender's Game as the first in a comic series that would adapt all of Card's Ender's Game novels.  Card was quoted as saying that it is the first step in moving the story to a visual medium. The first five-issue series, titled Ender's Game: Battle School, was written by Christopher Yost, while the second five-issue series, Ender's Shadow: Battle School, was written by Mike Carey.

 Audioplay Ender's Game Alive: The Full Cast Audioplay, is an audio drama written by Orson Scott Card, based on the Ender's Game novel. At over seven hours in length, this retelling of Ender's Game hints at storylines from "Teacher's Pest", "The Polish Boy", "The Gold Bug", Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow of the Giant, Shadows in Flight, Earth Unaware, and Speaker for the Dead, and gives new insight into the beginnings of Ender's philotic connection with the Hive Queen.Ender's Game Alive  is directed by Gabrielle de Cuir, produced by Stefan Rudnicki at Skyboat Media, published by Audible.com, and performed by a cast of over 30 voice actors playing over 100 roles.

Audible also commissioned a German-language adaptation of the same script. Titled Ender's Game - Das ungekürzte Hörspiel ("The unabridged audio drama"), this adaptation was produced by "Lauscherlounge", directed by Balthasar von Weymarn and performed by a cast of 100 different voice actors including children.

 Translations Ender's Game has been translated into 34 languages:

  ("Ender's Game").
  ("Ender's Game").
  ("Ender's Game"), 2000.
  (pinyin：Ān dé de yóu xì) ("Ender's Game"), 2003.
  ("Ender's Game"), 2007.
  ("Ender's Game"), 1994.
  ("Ender's Strategy"), 1990.
  ("Ender Wins", "The Tactics of Ender"), 1989, 1994 (two editions)
  ("Ender's Game"), 2000.
  ("Ender"), 1990.
  ("The Ender Strategy"), 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001.
  ("Ender's Game"), 2011
  (enderis TamaSi) ("Ender's Game"), 2015.
  ("The Great Game"), 1986, 2005.
  (Tǒ pehníthi too Ender) ("Ender's Game"), 1996.
  (Ha-Misḥaq šel Ender) ("Ender's Game"), 1994.
  ("Endgame"), 1991.
  ("Ender's Game").
  (Endā no Gēmu) ("Ender's Game"), 1987.
  (Endaŭi Geim) ("Ender's Game"), 1992, 2000 (two editions).
  ("Ender's Game"), 2008.
  ("Ender's Game"), 2007
  ("Ender's Game"), 1999.
  (Bazi ē Ender), 2011
  ("Ender's Game"), 1994.
  ("The Game of the Exterminator") (Brazil).
  ("The Final Game") (Portugal).
  ("Ender's Game").
  (Igra Endera) ("Ender's Game"), 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003 (two editions).
  ("Ender's Game"), 2010.
  (Enderova igra'') ("Ender's Game"), 1988.
  ("Ender's Game").
  ("Ender's Game"), 1991, 1998.
  ("The Game that Changed the World"), 2007.
  ("Ender's Game").
  ("Ender's Game"), 2013.
  ("Ender's Game"), 2014.

See also 
 List of Ender's Game characters
 Formics

Notes

External links 

 About the novel Ender's Game from Card's website
 Ender's Game at Macmillan
 
 Ender's Game. Mormon Literature & Creative Arts Database.
 Intergalactic Medicine Show: Online science fiction magazine published by Orson Scott Card. Features a new Ender's world story in every issue.

1985 science fiction novels
American young adult novels
1985 American novels
Novels set in the 22nd century
433 Eros
American novels adapted into films
Science fiction novels adapted into films
Ender's Game series books
Hugo Award for Best Novel-winning works
Military science fiction novels
Fiction about near-Earth asteroids
Nebula Award for Best Novel-winning works
Tor Books books
Works about child soldiers
Works based on short fiction
Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Fictional video games The Ender's Game series (often referred to as the Ender saga and also the Enderverse''') is a series of science fiction books written by American author Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette Ender's Game, which was later expanded into the novel of the same title. It currently consists of sixteen novels, thirteen short stories, 47 comic issues, an audioplay, and a film. The first two novels in the series, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

The series is set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien society, an insect-like race known formally as "Formics", but more colloquially as "Buggers". The series protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, is one of the child soldiers trained at Battle School (and eventually Command School) to be the future leaders for the protection of Earth.

Enderverse

Ender series
Starting with Ender's Game, five novels and one novella have been released that tell the story of Ender. The first four have been described (and released as a box set) as The Ender Quartet and, together with Ender in Exile, as The Ender Quintet. Card first wrote Ender's Game as a novelette, but later expanded it into a novel.

While the first novel concerned itself with armies and space warfare, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind are more philosophical in nature, dealing with the difficult relationship between the humans and the "Piggies" (or "Pequeninos"), and Andrew's (Ender's) attempts to stop another xenocide from happening.A War of Gifts: An Ender Story, a novella, was released in October 2007. It is a parallel story set during Ender's first year in Battle School. Ender in Exile, which is both sequel of Ender's Game and a prequel to Speaker for the Dead  was released in November 2008. It involves Ender's journey to the first human colony on a former Formic world. Because of changes Card made to a few details of the story of that first colony ship and Ender's role as governor, it serves as a replacement for the last chapter of Ender's Game. It also deals with his meeting a character from the parallel Shadow saga (effectively wrapping up a remaining plotline in the parallel series).

Shadow saga
Starting with Ender's Shadow, five novels and one novella have been released that tell the story of the people Ender left behind – this has been dubbed the Shadow saga (also known as the "Shadow Quintet").Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender's Game, telling many of the same events from the perspective of Bean, a mostly peripheral character in Ender's Game, while the first three sequels, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant tell the story of the struggle for world dominance after the Bugger War. This involves the Battle School children, as well as Ender's brother, Peter Wiggin, and Petra Arkanian going up against Achilles de Flandres (from Poke's crew).

A sequel novella to Shadow of the Giant named Shadows in Flight further introduces three of Bean's children who also have Anton's key turned.

The Last Shadow (previously called Shadows Alive), was released on November 2021, takes place after both Children of the Mind and Shadows in Flight, tying up the two series, and explaining some unanswered questions.

Formic Wars

The First Formic War
Card and Aaron Johnston wrote a trilogy to cover the events of the First Formic War. Chronologically, this series comes before all other books in the Ender's Game series. Earth Unaware was released on July 17, 2012. Earth Afire, was released on June 4, 2013, and Earth Awakens on June 10, 2014.

The Second Formic War
On November 4, 2013, Johnston confirmed work on a second trilogy of novels covering the Second Formic War, with the manuscript for the first book due in 2014. The planned titles of the novels are (in order) The Swarm, The Hive, and The Queens. The Swarm, continuing the stories of Victor Delgado, Mazer Rackham, and Bingwen, was released on August 2, 2016. The Hive was released on June 11, 2019. 

Fleet School
According to an interview with Orson Scott Card at Southern Virginia University, Fleet School is "a new set of sequels to Ender's Game. It's for a young adult audience. It's what happens to Battle School after the International Fleet loses its purpose of war. It becomes what is called Fleet School, and it prepares kids to become commanders / explorers in the colonies that are going to be forming. We get to see that as the school administrators repurpose the school, the Battle Room is still there, but it's a whole different kind of education." On November 12, 2015, Orson Scott Card announced the title of the series and its first novel, Children of the Fleet was released on October 10, 2017.

Publications

 Novels in the series 
To date, there are 19 publications in the Ender's Game series, five novels and one novella in the Ender series, five novels and one novella in the Shadow Saga, five novels in the Formic Wars series, one novel in the Fleet School series and one collection of short stories. According to Card, there is no strictly preferred order of reading them, except that Xenocide should be read right before Children of the Mind.
The books can be read in the order in which they were originally written or in chronological order.

 Publication date 

 Chronological order Earth UnawareEarth AfireEarth AwakensThe SwarmThe HiveThe Queens (TBA)Ender's Game Ender's Shadow (Note: The events of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow take place in roughly the same time period.)A War of Gifts (Note: This takes place during Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow.)Shadow of the HegemonChildren of the Fleet (Note: opening chapters take place during Shadow of the Hegemon.)Shadow PuppetsShadow of the GiantEnder in Exile (Note: Beginning takes place during Shadow of the Hegemon and through Shadow of the Giant)Shadows in FlightFirst Meetings (Note: This is actually a collection of four short stories. The first two take place when Ender's parents are children and in their teens. The next is the original novella "Ender's Game". The last brings Ender and Jane together for the first time. "First Meetings" is listed right before "Speaker for the Dead" because the last story takes place when Ender had just turned 20.)Speaker for the DeadXenocideChildren of the MindThe Last ShadowShort stories in the series

First MeetingsFirst Meetings is a collection of short stories whose settings range from before Ender's Game until after Shadows in Flight and was first released in 2002.

Comic books in the series

Comic books in the Ender Universe are currently being published by Marvel Comics.

Game
In 2008 it was announced an Ender's Game video game was in the works. It was to be known as Ender's Game: Battle Room and was a planned digitally distributed video game for all viable downloadable platforms. It was under development by Chair Entertainment, which also developed the Xbox Live Arcade games Undertow and Shadow Complex. Chair had sold the licensing of Empire to Card, which became a best-selling novel. Little was revealed about the game, save its setting in the Ender universe and that it would have focused on the Battle Room.

In December, 2010, it was announced that the video game development had stopped and the project put on indefinite hold.

Orson Scott Card and Amaze Entertainment also came to an agreement about a game adaption of the Ender's Game novel but the plans never became a reality.

Manga
In 2014, Satō Shūhō's manga, Ender's Game (Jp Ender no Game) appeared.

Audioplay

Film

The film Ender's Game was released in the UK on October 25, 2013 and in the USA on November 1, 2013. The first script was based on two installments of the Ender series, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, when optioned by Warner Brothers, but was adapted to focus exclusively on Ender's Game when purchased by Lionsgate. The cast includes Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, and Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin. The film was directed by Gavin Hood.Ender's Shadow Audiobook, author's epilogue

Related

The Authorized Ender Companion
Written by Jake Black, The Authorized Ender Companion is "the indispensable guide to the universe of Ender's Game."
Sections in this book include: The Ender Encyclopedia, Ender's Timeline, Ender's Family Tree by Andrew Lindsay, Getting Ender Right: A Look at the Ender's Game Screenplay Development by Aaron Johnston, and The Technology of Ender's Game by Stephen Sywak. The majority of the book consists of encyclopedia references to the events, characters, locations, and technology found in the Ender's Game series up to the publication of Ender in Exile.

The book is notable for having new and behind the scenes information on certain topics such as Battle School Slang, The Look of the Formics, The History of Hyrum Graff, Ender and Valentine's Travels, and Mazer Rackham's Spaceship.

Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game
Ender's World contains 14 essays from Science Fiction and Young Adult writers, as well as military strategists and others about various aspects of Ender’s Game. The book includes an introduction by Orson Scott Card, who edited Ender's World and answers from many fan-submitted Enderverse questions from the Smart Pop Books Website. These essays are included in the compilation:
 "How It Should Have Ended" by Eric James Stone
 "The Monster's Heart" by John Brown
 "The Cost of Breaking the Rules" by Mary Robinette Kowal
 "Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game" by Hilari Bell
 "Parallax Regained" by David Lubar, Alison S. Myers
 "Mirror, Mirror" by Alethea Kontis
 "Size Matters" by Janis Ian
 "Rethinking the Child Hero" by Aaron Johnston
 "A Teenless World" by Mette Ivie Harrison
 "Ender on Leadership" by Colonel Tom Ruby
 "Ender Wiggin, USMC" by John F. Schmitt
 "The Price of Our Inheritance" by Neal Shusterman
 "If the Formics Love Their Children Too" by Ken Scholes
 "Ender's Game: A Guide to Life" by Matt Nix

Characters
Formics
The Formics, also known as Buggers''', are a fictional ant-like alien species from the Ender's Game series of science fiction novels by Orson Scott Card.

According to the novel canon, the Formics attacked Earth 50 years before the novel begins. They attempted to colonise the planet and were barely fought off by a New Zealand soldier known as Mazer Rackham. The first book in the series, Ender's Game, largely stems from the human quest to defend themselves from this species, although the Formics ultimately turn out as victims, with the first attack being an accident due to differing biology.

The term "Formic" is derived from formica, the Latin word for ant; whereas "bugger" is a pejorative used by humans; yet it was not until 1999's Ender's Shadow that the term 'Formic' was first used, interchangeably with 'Bugger'. Later books used 'Formic' almost exclusively, as the more 'scientific' term. This leads to odd scenarios in the continuity of the books, such as Valentine referring to them as "Buggers" in Ender's Game, chronologically next as "Formics" in Ender in Exile, and again as "Buggers" in Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. The feature film adaptation of Ender's Game uses "Formics" exclusively.

The Formic species consists of hive-minded colonies directed by queens. In Ender's Game, Graff described them as being an insect that "could have evolved on earth, if things had gone a different way a billion years ago," and that their evolutionary ancestors could have looked similar to Earth's ants. While often described as "insectoid", the Formics are warm-blooded, developed an internal skeleton and shed most of their exoskeleton, evolved a complex system of internal organs, and they respire and perspire.  If a queen dies, all the workers under her control lose their ability to function immediately; but in Xenocide, implications exist that 'workers' can escape the influence of a queen. The Formic race is revealed to be trimorphic in Shadows in Flight. Drones are much smaller and depend on a Hive Queen for survival, and their bodies are shaped to spend their lives clinging to her, until upon her death, they take flight to seek out a new queen. Drones are capable of individual thought and action as well as mind-to-mind communication, more limited than that of a queen; whereas queens communicate instantaneously and can even do so with other species. Formics live in vast underground colonies, usually without light, informing the assumption that Formics make use of sensory apparatus outside the range of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to humans. In the first novel they have artificial lighting; whereas in Xenocide, Ender claims they rely on heat signature.

See also

Ender's Game (film)
List of characters in the Ender's Game series
List of works by Orson Scott Card
Zerg - an alien race from the Starcraft universe, similar to the Formics

References

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2.  
3.  
 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
 Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
 Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
 Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
 Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
 First Meetings by Orson Scott Card
 Ender in Exile'' by Orson Scott Card

External links
 The official Orson Scott Card website
 The Ender Quartet, Ender's Shadow, and Ender series pages at Tor Books
 The Ender Saga
 

Book series introduced in 1985
 
Novels by Orson Scott Card
Science fiction book series
Space opera novels